Exporting Corn, Through Cattle - How The US Meat Export Federation Is Adding Value To Crop Farmers

Mar 15, 2017

One doesn’t typically expect to see many meat or livestock organizations at an event like the Commodity Classic, which is primarily focused on the corn, soybean, sorghum and wheat industries.

Undeterred, representatives from the US Meat Export Federation were nonetheless in attendance this year at the meeting in San Antonio. Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Associate Farm Director Carson Horn caught up with USMEF Chairman Bruce Schmoll, who pitched the idea that producers should consider exporting their corn - through beef. Click or tap the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of this story to hear Horn’s interview with Schmoll at the 2017 Commodity Classic.

“It’s amazing how many oilseed and feed grain farmers just don’t connect the dots currently on what added value the livestock industry offers them,” Schmoll said, a corn and soybean farmer himself from Minnesota. “I keep telling a lot of our growers that we would much rather see added value shipped out through processed pork, beef and lamb, then having to ship our raw products down the river.”

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Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.